


When a Star Shines on You

by moonlight_river



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Kid! Yixing, M/M, One Shot, Reincarnation, Star! Sehun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 02:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8354104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlight_river/pseuds/moonlight_river
Summary: Yixing is seven, when he first meets the star.





	

Yixing is seven, when he first meets the star.

 

He is in his father’s home town. A village, in a rural part of China. Here, the night is cold, the air is fresh, the grass is tall, and sky is wide. Yixing had never known the sky could be so big. Where he lives, in the big city, Yixing is used to seeing the sky as only a rectangular strip, framed on either side by tall buildings. The sky here is blue too, like in all his picture books, unlike the perpetual grey that fogs up the sky back home.

 

His father is drinking beer around the fire, with the men of the village. Yixing doesn’t see his mother around. He thinks she’s cooking somewhere. He heard his grandmother and aunties telling her that she should help out in the dinner preparations. In any case, Yixing has no one looking over his shoulder for the time-being, and Yixing fully intends to utilise this moment of freedom as much as possible, for as long as it lasts.

 

Yixing scurries across the grass patch, into the darkness. He wants to go to the stream. They had passed by it in the day. He had wanted to wade in it. Chase after the fishes. The big and fat fishes, sandy-coloured, like the river bottom, easily spotted because of the thick black stripes on their backs.

 

“No, Yixing,” his mother had said firmly. “You’ll get your shoes wet.”

 

Yixing was disappointed, but knew better than to go against his mother when she was using that tone of voice. So there he stayed, on the dirt road, looking at the sparkling stream and the big fat fishes, sandy-coloured and black-striped, from afar.

 

“City girl,” his fourth auntie, one of his father’s sisters, had muttered, once his mother was out of earshot. His other aunties had nodded their heads in agreement. “Born and bred in the city.”

 

Yixing had wondered what was wrong with being born in the city. Yixing had been born in the city too.

 

But Yixing has no time to wonder about this now. His short legs carry him across the grass patch, the tall grass brushing against his ankles, until he reaches the dirt road. He scoots down it in a brisk jog, but soon gets breathless. He walks down it at a slower pace. His knees are aching now, and he’s breathless. It’s longer than he thought it would be. He turns around. He can still see the campfire in the distance. He wonders if he should go back. It’s also darker than he thought it would be, so he’s a little scared. But going back now seems like giving up, so he decides to press on.

 

He turns his back resolutely on the campfire, and fixes his gaze on the road ahead. The road is quiet and dark, unlike the roads back home, which would have been lighted by streetlamps. Here, there is only the moon and the stars to light the way. Yixing likes this. He likes being able to see the stars so clearly. Back home in the city, Yixing could only see a few stars in the sky at night. But here in the countryside, Yixing had been amazed to see the entire sky full of stars. He had never known that there were so many of them. His father had said that the sky had always been full of stars, just that the lights in the city had been too bright for them to be seen. But here in the country, there weren’t many lights, and so, the stars in the sky could shine and be seen.

 

Yixing scans the sky, and he spots his favourite star instantly. Yixing has always been able to see this star, even in the city. To Yixing, this star shines bigger and brighter than any other star. If Yixing sits on his bed, back in his bedroom in the city, and looks out of his bedroom window at night, he can always find this star, shining brightly a hand span above the roof of the neighbouring block of flats. Even when out of his room, Yixing has no problem picking out this star in the sky. It’s his favourite star, after all. He has pointed this star out to his parents before. They can see it, on bright clear nights, when there is no rain, no clouds, and no smoke. But Yixing can always see it, no matter what. Even when it is raining a thunderstorm, even when the pollution index has gone so high that their city is blanketed in thick black smog, Yixing has always been able to see this star, shining big and bright. Yixing likes to think that the star shines just for him. He had told his parents this, and his parents had smiled, and petted his head, and agreed with him, but in the manner and tone of voice that tells Yixing that they don’t really believe what he is saying, but are indulging him, because they think what he is saying is cute. But Yixing doesn’t really mind his parents not believing him, because it makes what he has with the star special. The star feels like his little secret.

 

With his favourite star shining upon him, Yixing loses all the fear he had of the dark, and bravely continues down the path. Yixing does not know how long he had walked, and how far, but he finally sees the stream, sparkling in the moonlight. It’s pretty, and Yixing is glad he came. He’s been gone longer than he thought he would, and it’s most likely that his parents would have noticed his absence by now. Yixing’s going to be in trouble when he goes back, but even then, Yixing does not regret coming. Yixing had thought that the stream had looked pretty in the daytime, but now, under the moonlight, Yixing thinks the stream looks even more beautiful. The water flows, and each ripple reflects the moonlight, silvery-white and glowing in the darkness. The sound of the flowing water is lovely too, more audible now in the quiet of the night than it had been during the day.

 

Yixing squats down next to the water. Tentatively, he reaches out a finger. The pad of his finger touches the surface of the water experimentally. The lightest, briefest touch, before he quickly lifts it up again. The water is cold. It feels nice.

 

Yixing reaches out again. He dips his whole finger in this time, then his hand. The water is cold, but it feels refreshing. Yixing is filled with the sudden compulsion to go into the river. Remembering his mother’s instructions not to get his shoes wet, Yixing sits on the river bank, and takes them off. He takes his socks off too, bundling them up neatly into balls, and stuffing them into his shoes, just like how his school teacher taught him to. He rolls up his jeans too. It’s difficult. The material of his jeans is stiff, and Yixing has to use a lot of force. But he manages. After some huffing and puffing, he has his jeans rolled up to knee level.

 

Yixing hesitates a while, then decides he has come too far to not go through with it. He dips a toe in, then slowly lets his whole foot sink into the water. The sole of his feet encounters the bottom. It feels soft and squishy. Yixing enters the water, wading into the darkness, putting one foot in front of another, depending more on his sense of touch, than his sense of sight, to lead the way forward.

 

Shin-deep into the water now, Yixing stops, bending down to peer into the water. It’s dark, and Yixing can’t see a thing. He frowns. He’s here because he wants to catch fish, but what he didn’t realise was that the fish, so easy to spot during the day, are as good as invisible to him now. Not wanting to give up, Yixing goes deeper. Perhaps he will encounter a fish. Feel one brush against his leg.

 

It happens suddenly. Yixing was putting one foot in front of another. It was his left foot’s turn now, and he had put it down, only that it was not squishy mud that the sole of his left foot stepped into. The sole of his foot encountered the slippery surface of an underwater rock. Yixing had put a lot of force into the step, so that his foot will sink into the mud. The amount of strength, while suitable for walking in mud, was entirely unsuitable for a slippery stone surface, and Yixing found his entire body sliding into the water, dragged forward by the momentum of his sliding left foot.

 

Yixing lets out a scream, and thrashes wildly with arms and legs. He expects his legs and buttocks to encounter the bottom of the river. Where he was wading was pretty shallow. He thrashes around, expecting to be able to hit a solid surface, so that he can stand up. But to his utter shock, he doesn’t. He flings his arms and legs around frantically, but all he encounters is formless, unsubstantial water. Unknown to Yixing, the river bed had dipped steeply just right where he had lost his footing. If he had been wading in the river during the day, Yixing would have been able to see the sudden plunge in depth through the sparkling clear water, but at night, Yixing had unknowingly walked into the deep end.

 

Yixing is frantic. He struggles with all his might, harder than ever before, harder than he ever knew he was capable of. His head sinks under the surface, and he swallows water. The water burns his throat and nose. He thrashes frantically, and his head breaks free of the water surface. He gulps down a mouthful of air. But then he is sinking down underneath the water’s surface again, and he can’t help drinking in more water.

 

“Help!” he screams. “Help!”

 

His hand frantically reaches out, desperately trying to claw at something, anything. But there is nothing to hold onto. There is nothing around him but water. Nothing above him except the sky, the moon and the stars. In his desperation, Yixing tries to reach out for them, the round lights in the sky. His fingers close around them, but he cannot grasp hold of them, his fingers only encountering empty air.

 

Yixing is tiring. Every time his head comes up to the water’s surface, it comes up lower, and for a shorter period of time. His arms are tired, and his legs are tired. Yixing is frantic, desperate, but he knows that he can’t keep this up for much longer. He looks around wildly, but there is nothing but the moon and the stars in the sky.

 

One of the lights in the sky seems to be burning brighter and brighter. No longer just hanging in the dark blackness, it seems to be moving, shooting across the sky.

 

“Help!” Yixing cries out to it. “Help me!”

 

The light is hurtling through the heavens, straight towards Yixing. Yixing reaches out for it. Water is hitting his face, splashing against his eyes, his nose, his mouth. His arms and legs are tired. He struggles to breathe, but the mouthfuls of air he takes in are mixed with water. He inhales in more water than air. His only hope lies in the light. The light is coming to save him. The light is the only thing in the world that knows that Yixing is in trouble, that Yixing needs saving. But will the light reach in time?

 

Yixing’s head slips under the water.

 

He tries to push himself up, but he can’t.

 

He’s too tired. His arm muscles and leg muscles are burning.

 

He feels himself sinking, sinking, sinking.

 

Then suddenly, Yixing is above the water surface again. He gulps down a lungful of air. Then another. And another. The air flowing down his throat is the best feeling he has ever felt in his life. Strong arms have encircled Yixing, and have lifted him out of the water.

 

Yixing feels himself being laid down on the ground, on his back. A heavy pressure presses on his stomach, then Yixing finds himself forced to throw up water, water flowing out of his mouth involuntarily with every press. A few more pumps, then Yixing finds that his throat is clear, no longer choked with water, and he is able to breathe normally, every gulp of air a miracle and a blessing.

 

“Yixing.”

 

Yixing hears a voice call his name.

 

“Yixing.” The voice says again. “Are you alright?”

 

Even through his closed eyelids, the brightness burns Yixing’s eyes. Rubbing his eyes to free them of water, Yixing squints up, opening his eyes to look upon the brightness. A face is looming over Yixing, and Yixing blinks up into it. He tries to sit up. He is unsuccessful at first, but the man helps him, pulling Yixing up and supporting Yixing’s lower back, so that he is sitting up.

 

Yixing looks up at the face of his saviour. The man is looking down at Yixing with concern. Kindness and warmth radiate out from this man, and then the scariness of what had just happened catches up with him. Yixing does the only thing he knows how to do in situations such as these. He throws his arms around the neck of the person in front of him, tilts his head backwards towards the sky, and bawls. At the top of his lungs.

 

The man hugs Yixing close to him. As the man holds him, Yixing feels warmth radiating out from the man. The warmth spreads through Yixing, chasing away the cold of the night and of having been submerged in the river water.

 

The man is speaking to Yixing as he hugs him. “It’s alright, Yixing. I’ve got you. You’re safe now. I am right here with you.”

 

His words are soothing and comforting, and Yixing finds himself calming down. His loud wailing subsides into small sniffles. As the man gently wipes away Yixing’s tears, Yixing looks at him, really looks at him for the first time. He scrambles to his feet to get a better look, standing so that he can be on the same eye level as the man who is kneeling in front of him.

 

He’s unlike anyone Yixing has ever seen before. Yixing never knew it was possible for anyone to be so good-looking. The man is dressed entirely in white. A long white coat that covers a white long-sleeved top with a round collar that is almost a turtleneck, but not quite, and long white pants. The man’s clothes are made of a material Yixing has never seen before. Smooth, without any wrinkle or creases, and so white it looks very clean and pure. The man has black hair, with a long fringe that is parted to the side, the ends of his fringe framing his forehead. The man’s skin is smooth and pale, and ethereal.

 

When Yixing looks into his eyes, Yixing feels like he is looking into another galaxy. The man’s eyes are unlike anything Yixing has ever seen before. There’s an American teacher in his school, Mrs Burrows. She teaches them English once a week. She has blue eyes. There’s a girl in Yixing’s class too, called Summer. Though her mum’s from China, her dad’s from Canada, and she has light brown eyes. Yixing had thought Mrs Burrows and Summer had the most interesting coloured eyes in the world, but Yixing realises that they are nothing compared to this man’s. Yixing takes a while to even figure out what colour this man’s eyes are. Yixing remembers mixing colours during Art class. He had mixed purple paint with white paint once, and his Art teacher, Mr Feng, had said that the colour Yixing had come up with was called lavender. Yixing decides that the man’s eyes are lavender in colour. Except that that is not all. Besides being lavender in colour, the man’s eyes are strange because his lavender coloured eyeballs are dotted all over with speckles of glowing white light. Like millions of stars set in a lavender-coloured universe.

 

Despite his extraordinary eyes, this is not the strangest thing about this man. The strangest thing about this man is that he glows. He radiates light, beams of white light that emanate from him, and into the darkness of the night. Yixing is cast in his white glow, and so are the reeds they are standing next to, the ground that they are standing on, and the water that is flowing next to them.

 

“What are you?” Yixing asks, because even though this person has the form of a human being, and talks like a human being, Yixing knows, just knows, that he’s not human. He’s something else altogether, and Yixing is in awe.

 

“I come from over there,” the man says, pointing towards the sky.

 

Yixing’s line of sight follows the direction of the man’s finger. He looks up into the sky. The full moon hangs brightly in the sky, and the stars sparkle overhead. Yixing looks at where the man is pointing. He is pointing at an empty spot in the sky. An empty spot in the sky, where Yixing’s favourite star should be. Yixing blinks and stares at the spot again, to make sure. His favourite star is indeed missing from the sky. Nothing but empty blankness where it should be. He looks back at the man. The man smiles at him reassuringly.

 

“You’re a star!” Yixing declares excitedly.

 

The man smiles and nods, and Yixing beams, feeling smart for being able to figure it out.

 

“You’re _the_ star!” Yixing says, because the man in front of him is not just any star, but his favourite one, the one that he had always liked for as long as he could remember. “The one that I like the most!”

 

The star beams at him, and seems to glow even brighter.

 

“How did you know my name?” asks Yixing.

 

The star holds Yixing in his arms, and his face is very near Yixing’s. His eyes look straight into Yixing’s, open and sincere.

 

“I have known you for a thousand years,  
In other times and other worlds,”

 

the star says.

  
“I have known your heart,  
Your mind and your very soul.”

 

Yixing stares at the star, transfixed, hanging on every word. The star smiles at Yixing, and arranges Yixing's fringe for him, a tender gesture.

  
  
“We have travelled separately,  
Through endless space and time  
To be together here.  
I have always known that it would come to pass.”

 

The words reach deep into Yixing’s heart, and Yixing knows that the words are true. When something is the truth, it strikes you deep inside, reverberates in the depths of your soul, like the sounding of a bell, deep and pure.

 

“What is your name?” Yixing asks the star.

 

The star smiles, pleased that Yixing wants to know.

 

“I am Oh Sehun.”

 

“Sehun.” Yixing tries the name on his tongue, and it comes out naturally, as if it were a name that he had called on many times before.

 

“My Yixing.”

 

The star smiles. He cups Yixing’s face in his hands, and kisses Yixing on the forehead. As Sehun’s lips presses against him, Yixing feels a warmth spread over his entire body. He has never felt so loved.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> The poem that Sehun quotes is an excerpt from “In Discovery”, a poem written by Leonard Nimoy, published in a book entitled “You and I”.
> 
> Read an excerpt from the poem [here](http://onewomanstarfleet.tumblr.com/post/60963423761/i-have-known-you-for-a-thousand-years-in-other)  
> and the complete poem [here](http://www.emule.com/2poetry/phorum/read.php?7,151449)


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